LEES: Racial hostility, homophobia, and misogyny

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

By TOM LEESIn the wake of the Supreme Court decisions this week, Charles Blow of the New York Times wrote a commentary saying that the places that are the most racially hostile tend to be the places that are the most homophobic and misogynistic.

I was wondering how this would apply to us here in Pennsylvania. How do we stack up on racial hostility? Well, the University of California released rankings based on the National Annenberg Election Survey. And guess what - Pennsylvania ranks down there with Southern states when it comes to some whites having low opinions of the “… intelligence, trustworthiness, and work ethic of blacks.” This comes as no surprise to me considering some of the conversations I have heard among some groups of whites over the decades. So the Supreme Court in its decision this week, instead of saying that Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is outdated and must get a do-over from Congress, should have added Pennsylvania to the list of places that needed Justice Department approval before making any changes regarding voting in our state.

When State Representative Daryl Metcalf (R. Butler) talks about aid to SEPTA being like “just more welfare” what do you think he is referring to? The code now is the same as it was when Ronald Reagan referred to “Welfare Queens.” For more on this issue read Karen Heller’s excellent article in June 26th’s Inquirer, which I got most of this information from. It is entitled “On race, PA. rates short on enlightenment.” Don’t be surprised when voter repression tactics are tried again by the GOP in Pennsylvania now that the 5-4 Supreme Court decision has made such undemocratic procedures easier to pull off.

Now how does Charles Blow’s thesis about racial hostility play out when it comes to homophobia in Pennsylvania? If he’s correct we should see quite a bit of it. Well, attitudes are getting better nationwide, but things are certainly tough in our state legislature (which seems to house some rather extreme types). Good old State Representative Daryl Metcalf (R. Butler) rises to the fore again. When Pennsylvania’s first openly gay member of the state legislature, Brian Sims (D-Philadelphia), rose to discuss the importance of the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, he was stopped due to procedural maneuvers used by Metcalf and some other Republicans. Metcalf told WHYY in Philadelphia that letting Sims speak would be violation of “God’s law.”

““I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law.”

Where is Metcalf getting that from. His idea of religion is that God is against free speech? Jesus said nothing about gays, so he’s not getting it from the words of Jesus. The Old Testament recommends that gays and shrimp eaters be killed. Surely, he’s not taking that literally. Who knows what this guy is thinking? This is the quality of thinking from some of the GOP members of our state government? No wonder our highways are a mess. No wonder the budget process is so horrible. We deserve better. Please pay attention who you are voting for in not just federal, but state and local elections also.

What about misogyny (literally, hatred of women) in Pennsylvania? How do we stack up? Well, the anti-choice (everyone is pro-life) forces have been hard at work ever since the days when my Malvern Prep colleague, Steve Friend, was in the state legislature. Steve is infamous for being the first Pennsylvania legislator, as far as I know, to expound on the moronic view that women can’t get pregnant from rape. That was the end of his political career, as it has been the end of some other political careers. We haven’t had to have a filibuster by any heroic pro-choice women yet. Wendy Davis from Texas set the bar pretty high for that with her performance in Texas last week. I can’t believe the GOP “war on women” that is being waged in GOP-controlled state legislatures nation-wide won’t rear it’s ugly head here in Pennsylvania soon. One can always hope.

All the non-racists, non-homophobes, and non-misogynists in Pennsylvania need to be really outspoken in the future against the forces of bigotry in our state.